Reintroduction of wolves (Canis lupus) to Yellowstone National Park in 1995-1996 has been argued to promote a trophic cascade by altering elk (Cervus elaphus) density, habitat-selection patterns, and behavior that, in turn, could lead to changes within the plant communities used by elk. We sampled two species of willow (Salix boothii and S. geyeriana) on the northern winter range to determine w...

Research on large predator-prey interactions are often limited to the predators' primary prey, with the potential for prey switching in systems with multiple ungulate species rarely investigated. We evaluated wolf (Canis lupus) prey selection at two different spatial scales, i.e., inter- and intra-territorial, using data from 409 ungulate wolf-kills in an expanding wolf population in Scandinavi...

background : the aims of this study were to determine the seroprevalence of canine ehrlichiosis and risk factors of this disease in companion dogs’ population of mashhad, north east of iran. canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (cme) is a zoonotic disease transmitted by ticks, rhipicephalus sanguineus, and caused by an obligate intracellular bacterium, ehrlichia canis. methods : during september 2009 ...

Perhaps no other large predator is more deeply embedded in our psyche than the wolf. Vilified throughout history in both legend and literature, humans had effectively eradicated wolves from Europe by 1850. In the United States, the government declared a war of extermination against gray wolves (Canis lupus) beginning in the early 1800s. Hunters, ranchers, and farmers eagerly enlisted, using let...

When attempting to understand where domestic plants and animals were domesticated, it is essential to consider the geographic distribution of the wild ancestor. Many domestic taxa now inhabit just about every continent thanks to their human-mediated dispersal which began soon after they were incorporated into the human niche. But just because sheep are now crucial to the economy of New Zealand ...

Tropical Pacific Ocean warming has been separated into two modes based on the spatial distribution of the maximum sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly: an east Pacific warming (EPW) and a central Pacific warming (CPW). When combined with east Pacific cooling (EPC), these three regimes are shown to have different impacts on tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the North Pacific by differential m...

Diazepam doses of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 mg/kg induced feeding in sated gray wolves in a dose-dependent manner (p less than 0.001). Neither 0.8 mg/kg of the benzodiazepine antagonist, beta-CCP (p = 0.36), nor 0.8 mg/kg of the benzodiazepine inverse agonist, beta-CCE (p = 0.85), decreased the diazepam-induced hyperphagia. Five of 6 naive wolves (p = 0.003) ate dry dog food within 15.4 +/- 1.9 min of ...

How wolves were first domesticated is unknown. One hypothesis suggests that wolves underwent a process of self-domestication by tolerating human presence and taking advantage of scavenging possibilities. The puppy-like physical and behavioural traits seen in dogs are thought to have evolved later, as a byproduct of selection against aggression. Using speed of selection from rehoming shelters as...